Don Bradman's Test average was 99.94 - a duck from 100
Four runs in his final innings would have made it a perfect 100. He was bowled second ball for nothing.
In cricket, a batting average is your total runs divided by the number of times you were dismissed - so a high figure means you scored heavily and rarely got out. Across a 20-year career from 1928 to 1948, Australia’s Don Bradman played 52 Tests, scored 6,996 runs, and finished with an average of 99.94.
To grasp how absurd that is: no other batsman with a serious career has topped 62. Guinness World Records calls it the highest Test batting career average, “streets ahead of any other batsman in history.”
It could have been a flawless 100. In his final Test innings, at The Oval in 1948, Bradman needed just four runs. He was bowled for a duck - out for zero - by England’s Eric Hollies, and his side’s collapse meant he never batted again. Those four missing runs left him on 99.94 forever.
Sources & references
3 referencesWell-established. Corroborated by 3 independent sources.
